A bandage are typically used to decrease prolonged loss of body fluids and stop bleeding by covering and protecting wounds such as cuts, scrapes, blisters, bruises and the like. Therefore, bandages are extensively used in hospitals, schools, at home, and basically anywhere.
Most adhesive articles including sticky skin covers such as bandages, plasters and skin patches, are packed in bulks of individual articles; however, some dispensers were developed over the years as an answer to a prolonged need.
An example is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,358,140 “Adhesive bandage dispensing system” by Pellegrino. The dispensing system includes an elongated strand of individually sterile-wrapped adhesive bandages and a reusable dispenser for dispensing the bandages. Each bandage is contained in a separate sterile compartment of an otherwise continuous wrapping material.
Another individual bandage dispenser is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,271,522 “Individual bandage dispenser” by Ko et al., wherein the bandages are adhered to successive bandages along away from ends of the bandage. The bandages are dispensed from a gap in a top wall of a box.
The dispensers described above still require high dexterity from their user in order to be properly used, for example in removing the base layers from the adhesive material, and using the correct amount of force to pull the articles out of a gap in the top of the dispenser yet avoid tearing them off before they are fully out of the gap, and therefore merely organize the individual articles and dispense them individually.
Publication WO2008/122982 describes an adhesive bandage dispenser suitable for use by layperson that includes: a cartridge having walls, bottom, and upper opening; a plurality of stacked plates accommodated within the cartridge; a resilient element provided within said cartridge beneath a lowermost plate, wherein said resilient element is adapted to push said plurality of stacked plates toward said upper opening; an adhesive bandage mounted onto each one of said plurality of plates wherein adhesive material of said adhesive bandage is exposed, and an ejection mechanism adapted to eject an uppermost plate of said plurality of plates so as to allow a sequential plate to move upwardly towards said upper opening.
The adhesive dispenser in WO2008/122982, as shown in the figures therein, has adhesive bandages mounted onto each one of said plurality of plates such that the adhesive material (and the sterile pad) of said adhesive bandage is exposed on the side of the plate facing the upper opening. It is envisioned that in certain circumstances the upward exposure of the sterile pad is undesirable, for example small children may accidentally eject an uppermost plate without actually using the bandage mounted on the plate, or apply the bandage a long delay after exposing it to the atmosphere.
Furthermore, although the bandage dispenser described in WO2008/122982 is simple and easy to use and manufacture, further simplification of the dispenser is possible, while retaining all of the advantages of the dispenser described in WO2008/122982.
There is still a need for new dispensers for adhesive articles in any size, of simple construction and simple to operate, that organizes the articles and dispenses them individually without the need to handle the exposure of the adhesive portions, so that the skin-adherent covers in the articles can be immediately and safely adhered onto skin without wasting valuable time.